This banger is the best definition of marriage I've ever read 

5 great critics of modernity:

• Nietzsche
• GK Chesterton
• James Burnham 
• Aldous Huxley
• Julius Evola

Who would you add to the list?

Critics of Modernity: A Reading List

2 min intros to some of their best ideas 

• Nietzsche on Master-Slave Morality
• Chesterton on Education
• Burnham on Power
• Huxley on Modern Pleasures
• Evola's Revolt Against The Modern World

Read on: https://memod.com/jashdholani/boards/critics-of-modernity-2372

300+ responses 🤯

I'll be putting the answers together in One Big List on my Substack

With their main book and one interesting quote

Sign up here to receive the list: http://oldbooksguy.substack.com

Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon on this day, 2072 years ago

With one move he started a civil war, made Rome an empire, and changed the course of world history

On the anniversary of a great man's great decision

Here are 17 incredible paintings, prints, and statues of Caesar🧵 

1/ Three Worthy Pagans: Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar by Daniel Hopfer (1516) 

2/ Gaius Julius Cæsar, from the Great Generals series for Allen &amp; Ginter Cigarettes Brands (1888) 

3/ Vercingetorix Throws down His Arms at the Feet of Julius Caesar by Lionel Noel Royer (1899) 

4/ Fountain of Caesar in Olomouc, Czech Republic by J. J. Schauberger (1724) 

5/ Statue of Julius Caesar, Via dei Fori Imperiali, unveiled by Benito Mussolini (1936) 

6/ Julius Caesar sculpture by Ferrucci (1514) 

7/ Caesar and Joshua, from a series of the Nine Worthies (1312) 

8/ Shakespeare's First Folio of the Tragedy of Julius Caesar (1623) 

9/ Rebellious Roman Gen. Pompey fleeing the battle of Pharsalia after his defeat by the forces of Julius Caesar during the Roman Civil War (1850) 

10/ A 1783 edition of The Gallic Wars written by Caesar 

11/ Caesar Placing Cleopatra Back on the Throne of Egypt by De Cortona (1637) 

12/ Tusculum portrait - the only portrait of Caesar made while he was alive (50 B.C.) 

13/ The Triumph of Julius Caesar: Elephants Carrying Torches by Andreani (1593) 

14/ The Musicians in The Triumphs of Caesar by Mantegna (1485) 

15/ Julius Caesar Introducing the Zodiacal Sign of Cancer (1170s) 

16/ The Siege of the City of Alesia by Melchior Feselen (1533) 

17/ Finally a painting that shows Caesar's magnanimity

Chamber of the Emperors by Primaticcio (1529)

Caesar orders the destruction of Pompey's letters

Inside were details of everyone who had conspired against him

He simply didn't wish to know

All were now friends 

Here is a 2 minute introduction to Caesar

His genius military strategies

His psychological analysis by Nietzsche

His plans at the time of death

And the infamous pirates story👇🏻

https://memod.com/jashdholani/julius-caesar-4054

Appreciate your time!

RT to spit on Brutus 👇🏻

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1612845104653553664?s=20&t=ktqfabaQWbUdvP9-nu1_BQ

The French Revolutionaries invented a new Calendar 

Minutes: 44% longer

Days: from 24 to 10 hours

The goal? 

Make time-keeping more “scientific”

The result?

Total disaster

The story of the French Revolutionary Calendar banished by Napoleon, on this day, 217 years ago👇🏻 

1/ This is a story of political arrogance

The revolutionaries overestimated the power of science

And underestimated the *stickiness* of religion

One hour = 100 minutes

One min = 100 seconds

New year shifted from 1st Jan to 22nd Sept

A radical attempt to redefine time itself

2/ The French revolutionaries adopted a new calendar for three reasons:

- To eliminate religious consciousness from the French society 

- To make time more “rational”

- To announce the birth of an egalitarian era

In their zeal they forgot an important factor: human nature

3/ From 1793 to 1805 in France, 1 week had 10 days

The 7th day, traditionally a holiday - “holy day” - became a typical week day

Every 10th day was the rest day

John Quincy Adams called this change not just "irreligious" but also "superficially frivolous" and "coarsely vulgar" 

4/ Sociologist Zerubavel notes that the 10-day week was meant to disrupt the “traditional, sacred seven-day cycle” 

Purpose was to disorient people and make them lose track of “Sunday” 

That is, the day for going to Church 

And having a weekly sitdown with the divine 

5/ The French Revolutionary Calendar was designed by the top experts of the day

The chief designer: CG Romme (Physics professor)

Mathematicians &amp; astronomers chipped in

Tradition/old habits didn’t matter

The designers answered “solely to the principles of Reason and Science”

6/ Sociologist Zerubavel: “The Revolutionary Calendar was introduced in an age which advocated the total obliteration of the old order in the name of progress and modernity: the beginning of the new Republican Era marked the total discontinuity between past and present.” 

7/ Every calendar has “critical dates” which are suffused with a symbolic importance

The Revolutionaries changed the first day of the year from January 1 to 22nd September - the day of the “foundation of the French Republic”

Society was to spin not around religion but politics 

8/ Days which had a unique flavor due to their religious significance like “the saints' days, Sunday and the Church's religious holidays” were abolished. Each day became mathematically and symbolically alike. Differences were to be erased - whether among people or on the calendar 

9/ By adopting calendrical rhythms alien to the rest of the world

The French created artificial barriers to communication, understanding, and ultimately trade

How would you fix delivery schedules with a country whose calendar is untranslatable into yours?

10/ Imagine you’re a French peasant in 1793

The revolutionaries have not just beheaded the King and slaughtered their own

But have also made the week 10 days long

The day is now 10 hours, not 24

Your old clocks - and your old instincts - need to be thrown out

11/ By denouncing all authority as arbitrary, the revolutionary finally harms himself

On what grounds will HE govern once the king is gone?

In hindsight we can see the “boomerang effect” of the Calendar redesign

If the old dogmas were random

Why are the new ones any better?

12/ The people HATED the new Calendar

It made them work for 9 days straight instead of 6

Plus it was confusing

Special clocks were made to translate the Revolutionary calendar into the Gregorian calendar and back 

People’s age-long habits were redesigned without their CONSENT 

13/ STALIN imposed a new calendar too

The week was cut to 5 days to eliminate the holiday of Sunday

Days were assigned colors, and workers were given colors

When it was your colored day, you took a day off

Families and friends had different colors and so they never hung out 

Here’s the French Revolutionary Calendar. Designed by the biggest scientific minds of the time. A failed dream and a symbolic warning. An attempt to restructure time by politics instead of the sacred. Reasonable, rational, and hence doomed. An emblem to the madness of equality. 

Here’s the man who ended the tyranny of artificial time and took his country back to the Gregorian calendar

On this day, 217 years ago

Common Napoleon W 

Balzac, the famous French novelist, was a big fan of Napoleon

He systematically went through 100s of Napoleon’s speeches &amp; public gazettes

And collected his most interesting aphorisms and maxims

Here are Napoleon’s best insights on war, love, and more:

https://oldbooksguy.substack.com/p/thirty-bonaparte-bangers

Enjoyed this thread? 

Appreciate your time!

Pls RT! 👇🏻

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1609202630760488962?s=20&t=F-BP-WRm_5RtOOn3qc3KgQ

Here's to aiming high in 2023, but not so high that we try to radically redefine the definition and experience of time itself 

I sometimes think "The Young Napoleon Bonaparte Studying At The Military Academy" is the hardest painting of all time 

"I too love power—but I love it as an artist. I love it as a musician loves his violin. I love it for the sake of drawing sounds, chords, and harmonies from it."

- Napoleon 

Ten revelatory bangers from Napoleon Bonaparte 👇🏻 

https://memod.com/jashdholani/napoleon-3-4289/part-1

Napoleon had a golden tongue: "I saw the crown of France lying in the gutter, so I picked it up with my sword."

Balzac went through hundreds of Napoleon speeches &amp; public gazettes to collect his thoughts on subjects ranging from politics to religion 👇🏻

https://memod.com/jashdholani/napoleon-s-aphorisms-2-4288/part-1

The more I look at this painting the more magical it gets. How his shadow merges perfectly with the silhouette of the city outside. How he has eaten through the books like he will eat through empires. His forward lean into destiny  https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1599407173142040578?s=20&t=Pky3eAoLF-XSml35TwxfkA

C.S. Lewis almost died in the trench warfare of WW1

Became best friends with Tolkien

Sold 100 million+ books

At the start of WW2, he posed a question to Oxford students in a profound lecture:

Does beauty matter when bombs start falling?

On Lewis’ birthday, let’s find out👇🏻 

1/ Should truth &amp; beauty take a backseat in war?

To care about cultural questions as one’s nation fights a war - is this equivalent to “fiddling while Rome burns?”

Lewis’ reply:

“The war creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human situation.” 

2/ The permanent human situation is endless strife, chaos and pain

C.S. Lewis:

“Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself”

Yet culture breaks out

3/ If we waited for peace to create art, the first cave painting would still not be made

Always some “imminent danger” looking more important than culture

Lewis: “If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun” 

4/ Insect life v/s Human Life:

“The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are different.”

We demand not just mere continuity but variety, growth, adventure 

5/ C.S. Lewis on why humans are a truly unique species: 

“Men propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature. “ 

6/ Right on the “front line,” soldiers don’t talk of the “allied cause” or the “progress of the campaign”

They’re instead concerned with stories, myths, fateful open-ended questions

They desire “aesthetic satisfactions”

If they won’t “read good books” they will "read bad ones” 

7/ CS Lewis on good ideas:

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. The cool intellect must work not only against cool intellect on the other side, but against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether.”

8/ The soul feeds on truth and beauty like the body feeds on food:

“God makes no appetite in vain. We can therefore pursue knowledge and beauty in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so.” 

9/ C.S. Lewis on why we must study the past:

“Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods.” 

10/ Past as immunity from new-age BS:

“A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore…immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press of his own age.”

11/ Don’t wait for spare time to know what you want to know and to chase what you want to chase

C.S. Lewis: “The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.” 

One of C.S. Lewis' most insightful - and strange - books is The Great Divorce

It's a fable about a bus ride from hell to heaven

Lewis got this story as a theological dream at the end of World War II

Top insights from the book on art, science, and more:

https://memod.com/jashdholani/cs-lewis-describes-the-nature-of-hell-3618/part-1

Our big God today: Equality

It's the deity you may not question, or else...

In a provocative essay, C.S. Lewis questioned just this deity

In my quick summary, find out:

- The special disease of democracy
- Why equality is medicine not food

And more: 

https://memod.com/jashdholani/cs-lewis-on-equality-3621/part-1

Thank you for reading!

I appreciate your time

If you enjoyed this thread

Do RT👇🏻

And C.S. Lewis-Pill your TL!

Spread the word on his 124th birthday:

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1597693393513373696?s=20&t=EQCUx-zkiBDIAWhPdcBMmA

You're looking at a 463 year old painting...

That contains 126 hidden messages (that we've been able to count...)

This painting is "The Topsy Turvy World" by Bruegel

And it has the earliest illustration of the *Blue Pill*

Discover this painting's top ten hidden insights 👇🏻 

1/ "She puts the blue cloak on her husband"

Bruegel's original name for his painting: The Blue Cloak

In the center a woman puts a blue cloak on her husband - a Danish proverb meaning to deceive someone

The Matrix made the Blue Cloak the Blue Pill - the meaning remains the same 

2/ "To be able to tie even the devil to a pillow"

This proverb means: Stubbornness

Sheer obstinacy

The tendency to keep throwing punches

If you turn up enough times, learn enough lessons, and iterate for long-enough

You can tie even the devil to a pillow 

3/ "Never believe someone who carries fire in one hand and water in the other"

How much of the modern economy is captured in this proverb?

Fast food creates billions in GDP

Erodes people's health

Then "Healthcare" comes in

More billions in GDP

Rinse and Repeat 

4/ "To not care whose house is on fire as long as one can warm oneself at the blaze"

No matter the era, you can always find characters whose minds and souls are hijacked by this brand of short-termism

A "me-ism" that doesn't see one can't remain standing if the ecosystem falls 

5/ "To be a hen feeler"

We see a villager feeling a hen to see if she's going to lay an egg 

Before slaughtering her

This proverb mocks those who are miserly - and hyper-sensitive to all minor losses

People obsessed with optimization even when it provides no meaningful gain 

6/ "To marry under the broomstick"

This proverb chides people who live together without sanctifying their bond before God

More broadly, this proverb suggests that everything important must be impressed upon with a divine seal

Let the higher power bless your endeavors 

7/ "One foot shod, the other bare"

Nature abhors imbalance 

Failure - when its not the result of sloth or monumental bad luck - is often the result of ignoring *the other half* of the equation

A product without marketing

Marketing without product

One foot shod, the other... 

8/ "To cast roses before swine"

You can't make a man understand something that his job requires him to misunderstand

The highest of truths, like the highest of peaks, aren't for all but for the select few ready to make a painful climb

Cast not roses before swine 

9/ "The world is turned upside down"

A feeling that has haunted the hearts of the observant in many eras:

Things are the opposite of what they should be

The moral order has been inverted

And the only way back is a vertigo inducing counter-revolution 

10/ Two related messages:

"To hold a candle to the Devil" - to be friendly with everyone without exercising any judgement

"To confess to the Devil" - to reveal your heart's secrets to the enemy

The sin of our age is over-inclusion and tearing down the much needed borders 

Artists throughout history - including writers - have left hidden messages in their work

Leo Strauss explores this phenomena in his essay: "Persecution and the Art of Writing"

How smart writers speak inconvenient truths without losing their necks👇🏻

https://memod.com/jashdholani/why-authors-write-between-the-lines-3323/part-1

Here's another fascinating painting: The Choice Of Hercules (1596)

It shows the timeless conflict between comfort and greatness

Here's my 2 minute breakdown of its meaning: https://memod.com/jashdholani/would-you-rather-be-great-or-happy-5529/part-1 

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed the thread

Do RT👇🏻

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1593621180375670784?s=20&t=jHTbQXoIbB2Bzw6h0pItxA 

Dostoevsky🧵

A literary rockstar at 24

Almost gets executed by a firing squad at 28

Exiled to Siberia

Returns to write some of the greatest novels ever

In his lesser-known letters and essays, we get a more intimate look at what he loved, hated, fiercely believed in

Dig in👇🏻 

1/ Dostoevsky believed life is only possible when you have a philosophical north star you swear by:

"Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea"

Dostoevsky: "In order to maintain itself and live, every society must necessarily respect someone &amp; something"

2/ In his essay against Environmental determinism, Dostoevsky writes:

"The doctrine of the environment reduces man to an absolute nonentity, exempts him totally from every personal moral duty and from all independence, reduces him to the lowest form of slavery imaginable."

3/ In a letter, Dostoevsky revealed the mystery he wanted to solve:

“I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man."

4/ Dostoevsky needed only three things: “I need nothing but books, the possibility of writing, and of being daily for a few hours alone. To be alone is a natural need, like eating and drinking."

Certain spiritual and intellectual problems demand solitude. 

5/ BUT Dostoevsky also warned against introversion: 

"Lacking external experiences, those of the inward life will gain the upper hand. The nerves and the fancy then take up too much room. Every external happening seems colossal, and frightens us. We begin to fear life.”

6/ Dostoevsky lists important questions all societies must ask:

"Whom can we now consider our best people? Most important, where shall we find them? Who will take the responsibility for proclaiming them the best, and on what basis? Does someone need to take this responsibility?" 

7/ Do we possess talent or does talent possess us? 

Dostoevsky: “It's very rare to find a person capable of handling his gift. The talent almost always enslaves its possessor, taking him, as it were, by the scruff of the neck &amp; carrying him off far away from his proper path.”

8/ Dostoevsky hated the "small-souled" people who preach "contentment with one's destiny” and "modest demands from life."

Dostoevsky: "Their contentment is that of cloistered self-castration."

All vital souls will instinctively reject such an "insipid" existence. 

9/ Dostoevsky on the measure of great art:

“Art is always true to reality in the highest degree…it cannot be unfaithful to contemporary reality. Otherwise it would not be art. It is the measure of true art that it is always contemporary, urgent and useful.”

10/ Art becomes abnormal when we become abnormal: “During his life man may deviate from normality, from the laws of nature; in this case art will deviate with him. But this serves to show art’s close and indissoluble link with man, its constant loyalty to man and his interests.” 

11/ Dostoevsky against censorship: "It is of primary importance not to hinder art with various aims, not to prescribe laws for it…for even without this it is already confronted by many submerged rocks, many temptations and deviations inseparable from man’s existence."

12/ For Dostoevsky beauty is synonymous with health and ascending life:

“Beauty is useful because man has a constant need for (his) highest ideal. If a people preserves an ideal of beauty and a need for it, it means that the need for health and normality is also there." 

Peter Thiel: "There is no better way to think about human irrationality than to read Dostoevsky, and there is no better reader of Dostoevsky than Mr. Girard"

Girard's book on Dostoevksy, Resurrection from the Underground, is fascinating!

Top insights👇🏻

https://memod.com/jashdholani/peter-thiel-s-bookshelf-resurrection-from-the-unde-3372/part-1

Albert Camus, one of Dostoevsky's greatest fans, said:

"Our world will die or accept that he was right."

Camus started out a staunch communist, then shocked everyone with a 180° turn

Here's Camus' story - feels like it's out of a Dostoevsky novel👇🏻

https://memod.com/jashdholani/why-camus-left-communism-behind-5515/part-1

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed this

Do RT👇🏻

Give your timeline a Dose of Dostoevsky:

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1591157021830950912?s=20&t=R5B6rKmBqlzkafMP0G9Jww

Cc: @martyrmade 

You might enjoy this thread!

https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1591157021830950912?t=6ucHsos1ZbL7cqiQj6_gVg&s=19

René Girard wrote an underrated book on Dostoevsky

It's called "Resurrections From The Underground" 

Girard explains human psychology using themes from Dostoevsky's stories

Peter Thiel recommends this book

Top insights from the book👇🏻

https://memod.com/jashdholani/peter-thiel-s-bookshelf-resurrection-from-the-unde-3372